This section covers all electronic communication through traditional EDI files and also live API real-time data flows available within Commerce.
Available Types | Details |
|---|---|
Warehouse | connection to your warehouse is available we can send the warehouse the following
We can receive back from the warehouse the following items which are usually set to process automatically letting you know if there are any issues
For more details look here Warehouse XML Service |
Web Sites | We offer a number of connectivity options for connecting to your website, depending on the level of connectivity will depend on the costs because some of the options need constant connection to the internet. Sending information to the web can be achieved by either Web CSV Web Extract CSV Incoming information from the website is sent through the API API It is best to have your developer contact us for more technical detail on the API |
Marketing | The ability to extract information based on various criteria for marketing purposes, this produces a format that Mail Chimp can import and you can use this output to refine the search to exactly what you want. |
Finance | This checks that all the invoices you have raised have reached the finance system, it performs a check of one weeks invoices each time it checks. |
Below are the instructions as to how these work on all of the administration pages within Commerce.
Interfaces cover both the API interface which is used from the
web interface to your web site
Vision Insight (Andoird salesman application)
Vision Horizon (Android ePOS application)
and also the internal CSV output/loading of files and information which allow you to
output price-lists
import price list updates
CSV validate customers (now replaced by the API)
CSV validate sales orders (now replaced by the API)
File Options
Export and Upload
The Export and Upload functionality is designed to allow you to easily update prices on products, product price lists, and customer price lists. It is NOT designed to amend anything other than prices on price lists, so to add product or remove them from price lists you should still use the relevant functionality on Vision Commerce.
This tab on the form deals with both Exports of Information and Imports and validation of the data.
You can export
Product Prices
Product Price Lists
Customer Price Lists
Make sure you remember the directory you send the files to, use the browse button to set the location to somewhere you can remember, once the files are created, you can then edit the values on the file and then re-upload the file which will automatically update the data
You should only update the sales prices on the files and reupload, make sure you do not alter the other information on the line especially the first field which is used to load the data back into the system.
When you upload the data you will be asked to provide a directory for the location of the file, this will then load the data and you MUST validate whichever price lists should there be no issues it will load the data and immediately the new pricing takes effect.
Validation Issues
Anything which has failed validation will be shown in the VIEW/EDIT rejections page and from here you can double-click on the item, correct the issue and then resubmit it.
API Options
If you go to the API options you will be able to see all the items which are coming into the system from either the website, Vision Insight, Vision Horizon. where the items have NOT been able to go directly into the main system.
if you wish to look at the details of what has been happening then you should view the audit log which provides a complete breakdown of all the transactions being processed
The other tabs for customers and orders are built in such a way that only items with issues are left showing here on the screen, when an order or customer can be processed automatically then this will be carried out and you will need to do nothing.
The information shown on the tabs is the complete information we have been sent from the external application so you can see all the fields.
If you want to complete the information you can simply enter the missing information or double-click the entry will provide you with a form for key information which is missing, if there are further details which you have not noticed are missing then these need to be filled in.
When this interface is tested we expect the web provider to consistently provide the correct information in the field so failure for items which are mandatory should not be happening. There are however some fields that the website does not know and those fields may need to be entered at this point.
The API Maintenance tabs help you define what happens when items come in through the API menu.
The API maintenance form needs to be set up before you start accepting orders and customer records from either your website, Vision Horizon, Vision Insight.
This allows fields that those applications can not fill to be filled by the system automatically upon receipt to allow the new records to go straight into the system, anything missing you will have to edit through the interface module.
The general page is used for the general way that the interface runs, and whether you want to save items directly or whether you want to be able to stop everything in the interface for you to process manually. Assuming that you wish to post everything directly then you will only see those items which have issues in the interface.
You need to review the interface menu at least once a day to ensure that no incoming information is sitting in this area waiting for details to be updated.
Options | Explanantion |
|---|---|
Allow updates to customers | This allows existing records to be updated, not all the fields can be changed and you can simply switch this off and review all the changes in interfaces before allowing them, if you select this then it will automatically post them. |
Default Sales Order Type | Assuming that your web interface is unable to tell us the type of order this is what we would set it to. |
Shipping (Surcharge) | The standard code we need to use to identify shipping on VC when your incoming order has this charge on it. |
Fee (Surcharge) | The standard code we need to use in VC to identify the charge, when this charge is in your incoming order. e.g. Credit card fee. |
Meta Data used for rotation | Is ony used on v1 which was withdrawn on 01/09/2018 It is there for customers for backward compatibility |
Incoming Values include VAT | If we are not told then this is what we need to assume for any order where it is not clear. It would be best to be consistent with this but we realise that this is not always possible. |
Quantity is in cases | v1 format The quantity field is in cases or is this in singles |
Customer defaults are to help you automatically create customers when the customer arrives from the external application, the fields above are mostly self-explanatory and come from the customer setup, which means they are choices of existing fields, such as VAT Code, Currency, status, analysis fields. If your external application can not complete or send these fields then this is what we will use to be able to save the customer record.
The Analysis field will need to be set up in the Analysis Code Maintenance please see link Maintenance
Auto Fill Lookup
There is a feature on the system which allows analysis fields to be automatically derived from other information the customer is requested to provide within their address and contact information.
This is an optional feature that you need to set up before switching on.
The feature will allow you to look up a new customer country, name, address, area, telephone, etc and from one of these fields, it will then base the analysis code on the contents of that field.
e.g. Customer sends in a +44 telephone number so we read this and we automatically know they are based in the United Kingdom.
Order Defaults tab allows you to specify any final order defaults which are needed for the incoming orders, if they are not specified on the inbound file then these are the defaults that we will be using for the order.
Most web sites are very basic in the information they take or store, especially for sales orders where there is no concept of what is required for excise and customs warehouse transactions, so most of the defaults that are provided here relate to this issue and are designed to try to allow those systems to send in basic information which we then try to work out what is is and how it will fit into the system, the goal is that we do not want to manually edit those orders unless we really have to.
The web extract can be run manually or you can schedule this to run automatically one time per day.
This will produce a number of files for your website which can either be downloaded locally to your own system or if you provided FTP details we can send them to your website.
The options are simply which output(s) do you wish and where do you want them to go to.
The time taken to process this is generally within 30 seconds.
Automated Scheduling
This has to be set up by us on the system for you and is done at the time when the system is first implemented or the web CSV is first licensed.
The warehouse submission screen allows you to send information to the warehouse via EDI file or through the API (this depends on your warehouse)
We can send Sales Orders, Pre-advices, and product codes to the warehouse, only items which have been committed allocated stock will appear in this list for submission if their warehouse group is set up to send submissions.
The standard process when dealing with a warehouse able to accept electronic submission is sales order → allocation → warehouse submissions → warehouse reply → confirm delivery (only if needed) → invoice
For simpler warehouses the process flow is sales order → allocation → (delivery note) → confirm the delivery → invoice
When you open the screen you simply select the warehouse group and you will be presented with a list of the submissions waiting to be sent to the warehouse.
Only warehouse groups marked as SEND TO WAREHOUSE will be shown in the selection box
The sending process is relatively simple, select the items you want to send and then press the Generate Sales Orders XML and the system will generate the file send it and confirm that it has been received at the other end.
The sending process is relatively simple, select the items you want to send and then press the Generate Sales Orders XML and the system will generate the file send it and confirm that it has been received at the other end.
At the same time should there be any pre-advices waiting to send or product codes the system will ask you if you wish those to also be sent, it makes sending them relatively easily.
If you choose to send them separately, their forms are similar to the orders and need no further explanation.
In the event, there is an issue with a file or with an order you can resubmit this to the warehouse.
You should only use this function if the warehouse specifically requests you to do so. You are at risk of duplicating the data at the warehouse which could result in double ordering. The warehouse will not check if you choose to operate these functions so PLEASE be sure this is what you need to do.
You can choose to either
Re-Generate - which will recreate the entire file, select the file you wish to re-generate and this option will re-produce the entire file.
Extract a Selected order - which will provide you with a single order from the file, to use this select the file, and the order and extract selected will provide you with a new file only containing what you require
If you do not want an Order to be submitted to the warehouse you can use the Hide button to remove it from Orders Awaiting Submission. Once hidden from the list it will not show again.
Pre-Advices and Product Codes
These forms are similar in operation to the order's submission, they will list what needs to be sent and you simply select what you want to send and press the Generate button.
Only pre-advices have the ability to resubmit, and this works in a similar way to the order resubmit screen, except you have to select each pre-advice you wish to resubmit individually.
Warehouse Documents deals with information coming back to you from the warehouse, this is in the form of XML either run files or taken directly from the warehouse system at periodic intervals.
Inbound Information | Frequency | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
Goods Received | from live to daily | You send a pre-advice to the warehouse and the goods arrive and the warehouse book those goods into stock at this point the warehouse can provide you with this information electronically. When we read this in we match the purchase order and its respective line number to the inbound information and then we try to match those lines and we auto receipt, recording the quantity, rotation number, warehouse it was received into and the warehouse receipt notes. If processed succesfully the purchase order will show the goods receipted. In the event of an issue then an exception report is generated which you need to review so that you can complete the receipt. here is only so much logic we can apply as we have no idea what the warehouse are planning on receipting by quantity or by number of rotations, or which products so the matching is a best endevours basis. |
Orders Processed | from live to daily | When you send the orders to the warehouse, following pick confirmation at the warehouse the information is then made available to you, this is what the warehouse have confirmed they have picked for the delivery This is reliant on the warehouse performing this correctly. Vision WMS offers a full handheld scanning solution which takes the human errors away from the pick confirmation part of the process for the warehouse. When this information is returned we match the sales order and sales order line number to the incoming information, the quantity we are provided from the warehouse is then the confirmed quantity that is despatched. Where the warehouse have taken the stock from multiple rotations we will automatically split the sales order into those additional lines as it is important we record the stock used rotation by rotation. We provide an exception report for this process, any orders which can not be matched you will need to process manually. The file will also contain movements of stock which are losses in store or destructions in warehouse, those you would not normally send to the warehouse first so they will generate an exception. You need to then process the loss in store using sales order or stock adjustment. |
Stock Snapshot | daily | Each day we suggest a book to book is run. This only works perfectly is the exceptions from the goods inwards and orders processed are cleared. The inbound information from the warehouse is loaded into the system, at the same time we generate a stock snapshot from commerce and then compare the two systems rotation by rotation, and any exceptions are shown on the exception reports. This allows you to pick up discrepancies each day. In the event you have issues with your goods inwards / orders processed, you can choose to fix those and recompare the incoming report or simply if the variances are small and you know what they refer to then you may not worry about running this again. |
We record all the inbound information we receive from the warehouse, each file is logged and stored and you can see the information in the Incoming Files tab as well as in the audit log.
However the audit log shows much more information and a full audit trail of what is happening, in the example below the system, is polling the warehouse every 15 minutes for any new information, which it then processes automatically
When information arrives into the system you will be able to see it in the tab for the file type and it will show within the processing sub tab.
This form allows you to process waiting files or re-process files that are there and the view will show you the contents of the file.
However each time you process the file you can view the report, using the report tab, the reports will be shown in the list
When you view the report it will provide you with information, the example below shows a file which was re-processed where the system detected that the purchase was already receipted
Configuration
The example below is the standard configuration
We retain information for 14 days by default. You can of course change this however this all takes space and there is generally no need to keep this information beyond 14 days if you are reconciling on a regular basis
The ability to reprocess warehouse goods received entry after it has initially failed because the reference could not be found in the system.
Traffic light colouring system:
PA line we can match, green
Taken a guess based on product code, yellow
Can’t match is red
The main reason for making this change was for when the goods received data is downloaded from the warehouse, if it contains an unknown PO number then we allow the user to match it to the correct number and receipt of the stock. If a PO has many lines then the process above is a bit cumbersome, as such we’ll use another ‘Match PO’ button to make this a little easier.
This feature allows you to dynamically generate marketing extract contact lists for your customer contacts based on criteria that you specify.
You would simply select the criteria that you want within the extract and then export it, the only export type currently is Mailchimp although we have found that this format is accepted by many other providers of bulk mailing services.
If you select options on the left of the screen you will get an extract based on the customer options, if you select items on the right-hand boxes this will be based on products and orders. You can not currently combine them.
The audit feature allows you to keep track of who is extracting what data and when
This option should be restricted to those in a position of trust as being able to extract customer data can be dangerous and data security is important.
Customers set to GDPR ignore or anonymous is not extracted within this feature.
The finance check is designed for older versions of Sage 50 (non-cloud) accounts where the Sage provided interface will fail to post invoices if you are using the sage system in any exclusive way. e.g. editing a nominal, checking audit, etc.
For over Account Software please check the following page Finance Integration Service & Accounts Posting Maintenance
Invoices which need to be verified will appear in the bottom half of the screen
You can only check a maximum of one week at a time and it will go to the finance package and check that all invoices have been posted and are present.
Before running consider the ignore zero option as sage does not hold 0.00 priced invoices so remove them from the check process.
System Verification is where Vision Commerce looks at each Invoice in Vision Commerce and checks that it has been posted to Sage.
This option was added to allow for a situation where Invoices did not post.
This usually occurs when you are raising Invoices and someone has the Sage database open with exclusive access.
The results in Vision Commerce is unable to post the Invoices.
Because running the system verification uses the ODBC driver we can only run this one week at a time otherwise the Sage ODBC cannot cope.
Manual verification is where you have done the check yourself and you are basically saying that everything is good between the dates shown.